Swansboro, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Swansboro, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Swansboro lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Swansboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Swansboro — the short answer
Swansboro, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- Onslow County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Onslow County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- Onslow County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Onslow County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Swansboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Swansboro's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Swansboro
Each reading below is measured for Swansboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSwansboro runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from Onslow County, the closest normal to Swansboro) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSwansboro sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Swansboro is in
Swansboro sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Swansboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Onslow County.
What Grows in Swansboro
Every plant below cleared Swansboro's own zone 8b and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Swansboro?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Swansboro
Survey cells within 31 miles of Swansboro checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 53 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Swansboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Swansboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAROLINA AUTO BODYBrownfields · 500 ft
- GOGAS 18Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CORNER PANTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HANDY MART 57Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WALGREENS #10436Brownfields · 1300 ft
- ON-093Nitrate · 1300 ft
- SPEEDWAY #7945Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SWANSBORO TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NCDSCA DC670003 (COASTAL DRY CLEANERS)Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- ON-097Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- SWANSBORO CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ZIPPY MART 312Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Swansboro's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Swansboro.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Swansboro
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Swansboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Swansboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Swansboro, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Swansboro — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (70 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Swansboro
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Swansboro average
Your land is one point inside Swansboro
Everything above resolves to Swansboro as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Onslow County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Swansboro Average
Swansboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Swansboro
- ●One soil character for all of Swansboro
- ●Frost dates read at Swansboro's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Swansboro's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Swansboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Swansboro, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Swansboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Swansboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Swansboro average
How we know this about Swansboro
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Onslow County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Swansboro
When does frost risk typically end in Swansboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Swansboro typically lands around Mar 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 4.
When is the first frost in Swansboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Swansboro typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Swansboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Swansboro sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 11, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Swansboro?
The federal record around Swansboro shows 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Swansboro?
From about Oct 26 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Swansboro's scale — its 8b band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Swansboro's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Swansboro’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Swansboro's own scale — the 1,430 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Swansboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Swansboro, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Swansboro's boundary and the 1,430 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Swansboro's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Swansboro checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Swansboro has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Onslow County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Swansboro's 1,430 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Onslow County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Onslow County
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Onslow County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Swansboro's 1,430 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Swansboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,430 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Swansboro-wide figureread your own land →
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